BEST Robotics is a nonprofit organization that seeks to give students in middle and high school opportunities to participate in the engineering process. BEST stands for Boosting Engineering Science and Technology. BEST supports an annual robotics competition across the US. Our regional competition will take place at Davidson. Twenty-two schools from New Orleans to Tallahassee will bring teams of students to compete in an engineering competition.

The focus of the day-long event is a robot, but the most important feature is not the robot competition. The competition has two award categories, the Robot Award, and the BEST Award. The performance of the robot is only a small percentage of the primary BEST award. The BEST award consists of the following categories:

1. The Project Summary Notebook (30 points)

This notebook details the engineering process that is followed during the competition. The format is defined particularly. Students must demonstrate the research and development side of the project.

2. The Sales and Marketing Presentation (25 points)

As many as 8 students will present the process to judges. This will include a multimedia presentation. Students may also dress in costume. Presentations may be board-room style presentations, skits, or PowerPoint driven presentations.

3. The Table Display and Interviews (25 points)

Students have a 10' by 10' by 10' space in which they can set up a display. The display usually follows the theme of the competition. Table displays usually include scrap-books of the procedure, prototypes of the robot, working models, and some sort of interactive aspect for the judges.

4. Spirit and Sportsmanship (15 points)

Teams are rated on how well they encourage their own team and the other teams in the competition. Many teams make giveaways to wish the other teams luck and to promote BEST. Teams also make noise-makers and banners for the day of the competition.

5. Robot Performance (5 points)

Students drivers will operate our robot on the day of the competition to try to get the most points. We will not know what the goal of the competition will be until kick-off day. The theme and goal of the robot is different every year, but each year, the materials are the same. These materials include a comsumable kit of PVC pipe, plywood, nuts and bolts, and miscellaneous parts. There is also a returnable kit that includes a radio control unit, motors, and various electronics.

The sites below will give you an idea of the scope of the competition.

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